This year’s African Girls Can Code Initiative (AGCCI) coding and robotics boot camp kicked off on 4 July 2025, at St Barnabas School of Specialisation in Bosmont, Gauteng. Approximately 91 Grade 11 girls from communities across eight different provinces in South Africa, each with a special interest in STEM, formed part of the third boot camp organised by the UN Women South Africa Multi Country Office, the Departments of Basic Education and Science, Technology and Innovation, with support from Siemens and the Belgian government.
With coding boot camps fast-paced and intense in nature, the AGCCI boot camp is designed in such a way that the girls are first empowered with problem-solving and critical-thinking skills before diving into the technical activities of coding and robotics. The first few days of the AGCCI boot camp were solely focused on building soft skills, working on identifying the girls’ personal strengths and instilling the confidence needed to proceed with the program. The girls, despite different personalities and backgrounds, embraced the spirit of collaboration and cooperation, and exhibited eagerness to broaden their knowledge in computer science and robotics.
An interesting introduction to the 10-day boot camp was the daily interactive engagement with women guest speakers, some in the technology sector, others in executive positions, who shared inspirational personal stories of their journey in tech and provided nuggets of wisdom regarding navigating one’s way around working in male-dominated fields.
Aiming to train and empower a minimum of 2,000 young girls aged between 17 to 25 across Africa towards becoming computer programmers, creators, and designers, a majority of the boot camp was spent on introducing the girls to computer science, website development and graphic design. Unlike the previous boot camps, this year the girls worked on real projects for real clients. In an effort to strengthen their newly-established skills, the girls were presented with real life clients who needed help in creating marketing material, including websites, for their businesses. Furthermore, through block coding platforms and free-source app inventors, the girls learned how to develop their own simple games and applications, and programme robots.
In-between the coding activities, various organisations such as the Tshwane University of Technology, ThinkShift, Maskew Miller, the National Youth Development Agency, UNFPA and UNICEF, and the Jabu Mabuza Foundation, provided useful information on preparing for life after matric. Speaking on involving the organisations, Ms Siya Leshabane, Programme Associate at UN Women and AGCCI programme manager, said: “This year we were very intentional about linking the girls’ subject choices, and what the girls learn here at the boot camp, with possible opportunities after matric. We saw it fit to include talks on career guidance, study options and funding prospects. We did this to ensure that the girls see all the possibilities this boot camp opens the door to”.
Mr Christo Jones, Chief Education Specialist for Technology, Coding and Robotics at the DBE, says that partners have been invaluable in the advocacy for coding and robotics. “The DBE highly values the contribution rendered by partners, whether through coding clubs, teacher workshops, and the donation and mediation of resources. The contribution of NPOs and NGOs cannot go unnoticed in exposing our learners, in the various corners of South Africa, to 4IR and 21st Century Skills,” he said.
Sharing an update on the status of coding and robotics in the country, Mr Jones says further training for foundation phase officials took place from January to March 2025, with the expectation that provinces will cascade the training to foundation phase teachers in time for full scale implementation. The DBE further plans to start training provincial officials in the intermediate phase, with the first session taking place from 28 July to 1 August 2025.